Google announced the all-new Google Buzz today, a Gmail “inbox” of sorts that aggregates all your contacts’ social network activity across the web. Lifehacker’s got the full rundown.
A few quickly-jotted first impressions of the service:
- This ain’t no Orkut. Buzz demonstrates that Google is VERY serious about social media, and just threw down the gauntlet in an attempt to take on Facebook and Twitter.
- However, they’re doing it by embracing existing networks and consuming their feeds, instead of building Yet Another Island. Openness: walking the talk.
- That said, while Buzz does include Twitter status updates –which Google already integrates into search results–Facebook status updates are conspicuously absent. When questioned about Facebook Connect support, Gmail/Buzz product manager Todd Jackson said, “We have nothing to announce about that at this time.”
- Instead of limiting Buzz’s photo support to Google’s own product, Picasa Web Albums, Buzz supports their competitor’s (arguably superior) photo-sharing service, Flickr. Once again, Openness with a capital O.
- With every Google launch, your Gmail Contacts become more and more important: first Voice, Wave, and Reader use your Contacts list, now Buzz.
- Buzz pushes Google Profiles usage with its integration into your Profile, boosting Google’s ability to present ever better people search results.
- Yahoo used to be the “social” human-friendly web company and Google the soulless, algorithm-obsessed robots. Now, Google is synthesizing passive data about user activity using an algorithm. Essentially, they’re letting humans organize the web using passively-generated metadata, versus using active editors. (Former Yahoo Bradley Horowitz, who is now at Google, pointed this out.)
- Buzz looks just like FriendFeed, another social media aggregator, which was founded by Googlers and purchased by Facebook.
- It’s kind of nice to log into a new social networking service and not have to find all your friends by hand–Buzz knows, based on who you email the most, which is the best possible measure.
- Right now Facebook is supposedly working on a webmail “Gmail killer.”
- Gmail usage is strong, so Buzz launches with a HUGE initial user base built right in.
- Buzz is more like Google Reader than it is like Google Wave, though it does take two small pages from Wave’s playbook. First, the idea of a universal inbox–someone does something on an external site, and you see the updates in your inbox. Second, rich media sharing–integrating images, videos, and links into status updates (like Facebook, unlike Twitter). Buzz’s image slideshow capability looks a whole lot like Wave’s.
- Finally, it’s kind of crazy that Google named the product Buzz, when Yahoo already has a product called Yahoo! Buzz, which we all apparently forgot about already.
And you? What do you think about Buzz?
20 Comments
Tris Hussey
I’m looking forward to giving it a spin. Of course I think I’m one of the many still waiting for Google to activate it on my account.
I agree with you Gina, embracing what we already have is a brilliant move. I wonder how quickly Facebook either just eliminates FriendFeed or tries to copy what Google is doing with Buzz as a final bit for relevance.
Brian Briggs
Glad to hear someone upbeat about Buzz. It’s hasn’t rolled into my Gmail yet. If I heard correctly you can add feeds to Buzz, so you could add your friends’ Facebook status update as an RSS Feed using this method:
To get your friends’ status feed:
1. Go to http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?friends
2. Copy the link to “My Friends’ Notes”
3. Replace “friends_notes†with “friends_status”
Doesn’t give you anyway to interact, but you can at least see them in your Buzz stream.
Found here: http://www.techlifeweb.com/2008/12/16/how-to-find-your-facebook-status-rss-feed/#comment-3518
Jimmy Blake
My big hope here is that they roll it out to Google apps pretty quickly. I think it would definitely be handy to use, but it seems like it would lose most of its handiness if I had to tab back and forth between my @gmail.com and my @appsdomain.com windows.
Chris Davis
I’m excited to see this, but it seems more and more I need to ditch my google apps account in lue of my gmail account as my main email account.
Right now I use my apps account as my main contact db, but that doesn’t carry over to my voice and other google services not supported on apps.
I really wish there was some way to sync/link my apps account to my google account so they were the same.
Dom
I think it looks like a fairly dreary copy of every other social network, but as it doesn’t work with my Gmail for domains account, I can’t see it.
Frankly, it bothers me that they keep rolling out things like this while ignoring the fact that their entire login system is fundamentally broken.
pattayarag
I have a number of important contacts who don’t use Twitter or Facebook but do use GMail. Buzz may bridge that gap otherwise I don’t see it worrying Facebook anytime soon.
google.com/accounts/o8…
I think the point here, for Dom and others of the same sentiment, is that this isn’t a social network by Google— it’s all about morphing the web into the social network that it already is.
Gina’s point, about it not being another “island”, is exactly the nail this they’re aiming to hit. If they wanted to make their own social networking site, they’d breathe more life into Orkut. They’re clearly trying to go in the other direction.
egonegative
When I click TRY BUZZ IN GMAIL absolutely nothing happens. What am I doing wrong? I’m always doing something wrong.
egonegative
Ugh. Never mind. It’s just not in my hood yet. I saw a shiny button and pushed. Should read more first I guess.
Siira
Looks interesting. It hasn’t been activated yet, but it seems to be what I have mentioned a few days before. We need a way to be able to maintain our digital social life in a better way then to visit each social network site one-by-one.
e.g. I have a profile on Facebook, Hyves (dutch facebook alike), Twitter etc. I don’t think I’m the only one that has his friends scattered amongst the various network sites 🙂
Keep up the good work Google 🙂
grimmy
It’s a shame it works on my Apple iPod Touch, but not on my Google Android Phone. I have a HTC Magic which is only rocking Android 1.6 but it appears it only works in 2.0 and above…
grimmy
Correction to my previous comment: Turns I can actually use it, but only from within Google Maps 4.0 (from the Market).
google.com/accounts/o8…
Similar to previous commenters (and in the vein of last weeks discussion on TWIG) I am having trouble accessing buzz using my main Google account, which is an apps account.
I have used it on an @gmail.com account and it seems to be pretty cool; however all of my email, contacts and my Android 1.6 phone are linked to my apps account.
I have managed to post a couple of Buzz updates from maps on the phone but without the Buzz folder in Gmail there is no way to fill in the profile details or link other account feeds (e.g. Twitter).
Also, the geo-location could do with a “city level” tuning knob like in Latitude, Brightkite, etc. If I am sending a public buzz I don’t really want to be giving out the GPS coordinates of my house.
noelmcavoy
I think Buzz has the potential to be a very valuable tool to me and many others. My biggest problem with keeping up with social sites etc is having to go back and forth between social apps, having a tool that integrates them all well (even if its only integrating the lowest common denominator ie status updates) will enhance my ability to participate in the online social communities regardless of which ‘app’ they are using.
Chad Egeland
Great write up Gina but unlike you I’m not as optimistic as you about Google Buzz. I really see this more as Google screaming out “Look at us, we can do social too” more than an actual attempt at getting into the social networking market.
Google has failed with products in the past and I believe this may be another one of their product failures in the making.
If anyone is interested I outline why I think Google Buzz will fail here: What’s All The Buzz About?
Bart Pascoal
I couldn’t figure out why Buzz wasn’t working with my Google Apps Account then I found this article:
http://digg.com/tech_news/Buzz_Reveals_Google_s_Split_Personality
I’ve noticed this problem before with other Google services like Picasa.
Basically Google pretends they don’t know who you are and forces you to open a regular gmail account?
Josh Parmely
This piques my interest because it allows you to aggregate your social networking feeds into one location and uses existing infrastructure to help you do it. The downside of it is that for full functionality, you want your buddies to have access to Buzz as well, and not everyone uses Gmail.
Now, I’ll be even more impressed if they have native Twitter (2-way) and Facebook integration in the pipe so you can publish content as well.
I’m still trying to iron out practical applications for it, but it could be a great way to keep me in Gmail where I live most of the time anyway, and out of 6 other tabs worth of feeds.
MRGlennon
I’m snowed in so I’ve been playing with it all day. I think this is going to be a great thing, but it’s far from perfect.
I’m a huge Google Reader fan. I have 50 people that I follow and we are all connected to each other and very active on the sharing and commenting section of that site.
A big dowside to Buzz is that while comments posted on shares in Reader show up in Buzz (and vice versa), Buzz isn’t set up to mark items “as Read” like they get marked as “Read” in Reader after you read them. This is because like Facebook’s newsfeed, they don’t want posts to go away or out of view like a “read” item does in Reader. They want it to be this constantly flowing river of information arranged by the date of when it is posted. Nothing ever goes away. It becomes part of this long running permanent record.
My Reader friends and I are intrigued by Buzz, but don’t really know what to do with it. So far for us it’s meant a lot of seeing the same Shares twice.
And I’m not an expert in Twitter, but it’s not like you can yet connect your Twitter account in such a way that all the people you follow on Twitter will have their tweets start rolling into your Buzz. Right? I mean, I can choose to share my Tweets in Buzz and anyone that has linked up both their Twitter and their Buzz will appear in my Buzz when they tweet, but won’t that leave out a big group of people (like the celebrities that are fun to follow)
Gina, big fan, and I would love to hear you talk about this on TWiG. Thanks,
Michael
MRGlennon
Oh yea, one more thing.
Reader allows you to select someone and see their Shares. This allows you to focus on people you like seeing shares from more than people you don’t care about as much (like if you’re in a time crunch)
This Buzz River of information approach doesn’t make it easy to select who you want to read. To me it looks like a priority is being placed on WHEN over WHO
Will Buzz ever be like Reader where we can see if the people we care about the most have updated without having to go through an entire wall to notice?
Or maybe I’m just not sure how to filter Buzz yet.
Thoughts?
chandi
I think Buzz, on itself wouldn’t be a deal-breaker! when it is combined with all the Google Apps. It kinda makes the Ecosystem (chat+Mail+docs+Wave+Buzz) for Enterprise Users self-sustainable!